[ad_1]
Personal Onboarding Call & Customer Service
When I created an account with Arrived, they asked if I wanted to schedule a free 15-minute call with one of their team members to answer any questions I had. Intrigued, I took them up on it.
The man I spoke with was patient and informative, and didn’t even rush me off the phone after I exhausted my 15 minutes. He answered all my questions in full with no waffling.
Full kudos to them on amazing customer service.
No Personal Liability for Investors
I’ve been sued as a landlord several times. And let me tell you, it sucks.
People love to vilify and sue landlords. Apparently, providing totally unnecessary services like pet therapy is totally okay with the public, but if you provide a needed service like housing, you’re automatically a jerk.
But I digress. When you invest through Arrived, you’re shielded from lawsuits or personal liability.
Downsides of Arrived Homes
Like all investments, Arrived has its disadvantages. Make sure you understand them before you invest.
No Way to Sell Shares Early (Yet)
Arrived plans to hold each rental property for 5-7 years. And as of right now, they expect you to hold your shares for that period, only cashing out upon the property’s sale.
That said, they’re working on two different early selling options. First, they’re creating a share buyback program, where they offer to buy your shares early based on the current property value.
They may, however, ding you with a penalty for selling early.
They’re also working on creating a secondary market for Arrived property shares. On it, you’d be able to buy or sell shares directly with other individual investors. You wouldn’t get hit with any penalties here, since you’d sell directly to other investors.
Inconsistent Availability
In some ways, Arrived is a victim of its own success.
When I first created an account in December 2021, there were six properties available. I logged in again the next day, and was shocked to find that three of those had sold out overnight, leaving only three properties left. I bought shares in two of those.
The next day I logged in again, planning to buy shares in the third property, but all had sold out. I then signed up to receive an email alert when they bought new properties, and for several weeks saw no new properties appear.
They later bought more properties of course, and I received an alert. But the new properties started selling out quickly too.
Clearly, there’s enormous demand for diversified, hands-off rental property investing. So much demand that Arrived has trouble meeting it.
No Skin in the Game
In my initial intro call with Arrived, I asked whether they keep any of their own money invested in the properties. The employee responded that they do not, to avoid any conflict of interest.
While I appreciate that they need to turn over their capital to keep buying new properties, I also like to see real estate partners have some of their own money invested, their own skin in the game. We certainly do, in our co-investing deals.
How Arrived Compares
Few real estate crowdfunding platforms let you invest with less than $100. In fact, I can only think of a few.
The closest competitor to Arrived is Lofty, which lets you buy fractional shares in rental properties with as little as $50. I love that Lofty offers a secondary market, where you can buy and sell your shares at any time. But I don’t love that when you sell shares on Lofty, you get paid in cryptocurrency and have to then convert it to fiat currency.
For a full comparison of pros and cons, check out our Lofty review here
Fundrise also lets you buy fractional ownership in real estate — if you’re an accredited investor. The rest of us can invest in their pooled real estate funds and eREITs, but we don’t get fine-tuned control over where each dollar goes.
Still, Fundrise lets you start investing with just $10, and gives you instant exposure to dozens of properties. That makes for simple diversification across many real estate markets (read our full Fundrise review for more).Another crowdfunding platform that lets you start investing with $10 is Groundfloor.
But Groundfloor offers a different investing model: you invest in loans secured by real estate, rather than buying an equity interest in properties themselves. That doesn’t make it better or worse, it’s simply a different type of real estate investing than Arrived offers. Expect to collect 7-14% in interest, rather than fluctuating rental cash flow and appreciation (full Groundfloor review here).
Investors have another two options for real estate debt crowdfunding. Stairs by Groundfloor offers a pooled fund of secured loans, and it pays 4-6%. The perk? You can withdraw your money at any time, penalty-free. Concreit works similarly, paying 5.5% in annual interest, but it takes longer to withdraw funds (30-60 days) and there’s a small penalty on your collected interest if you withdraw funds within the first year.
Is Arrived a Good Investment?
I love that I can spread $1,000 across ten rental properties with Arrived. In ten different states, no less.
Arrived offers one more way to diversify your investments.
I will continue investing in them, just as I invest in my own rental properties, in crowdfunded loans on Groundfloor, in private REITs with Fundrise and Streitwise, and of course in stocks.
With each investment I make, I add another stream of passive income. And with enough streams of passive income, I’ll reach financial independence and early retirement.
Which is, of course, the ultimate goal.♦
Have you invested money with Arrived Homes? Why or why not?
More Real Estate Investing Reads:
/* Facebook Pixel Code */
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘196504347516343’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
[ad_2]